Raptors’ coach Dwane Casey facing real expectations this season

Raptors' coach Dwane Casey facing real expectations this season

HALIFAX — Catch any NBA coach in a truthful moment, and he will tell you that the difficulty of his job is most strongly linked to the talent of his team. There are other factors involved: the personalities of his players, the media coverage and the peculiarities of the travel schedule, to name a few. But if you give a coach more talent, he will be happy enough. It is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day grind as a coach, with every win representing a breath of life.

Most coaches would say Dwane Casey had a pretty unenviable job last season. General manager Bryan Colangelo conceded this week that even he was not optimistic going into the season, due to so much youth and a very conscious slow build that the Raptors were pushing. The wins, 23 by season’s end, were always going to be difficult to come by.

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In another sense, Casey might never have an easier year. Sure, there was a lack of talent and experience, but there was also a virtual void of expectations. The Raptors were coming off two historically awful defensive seasons, and one of their key pieces of the future — draft pick Jonas Valanciunas, who could have been given the two-toned Obama Hope poster treatment — was being stashed away in Lithuania. An injury to Andrea Bargnani turned the team scoring-starved. If Casey, fired by Minnesota after just 123 games, still had some uncertainty about his credentials after last year, it would be understandable.

“I have no doubts. Are there things I have to do differently? You’re always looking for the right thing to do,” Casey said Thursday. “But I don’t doubt myself. It’s my 33rd year in coaching. A lot of my foundation, my philosophy, comes from a long period of time. It’s not something I’m guessing at. I know what wins. I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of two championship teams [as a player at the University of Kentucky in 1978, and as an assistant with Dallas in 2011] that had the same defensive approach that I have now.”

But if he wants to establish himself as a permanent NBA head coach, he will have to turn that knowledge and those philosophies into something more tangible. The Raptors are expecting to be in playoff contention for the first time since Chris Bosh left for Miami. The pressure is more squarely on the shoulders of Colangelo, whose contract could expire after this season. Casey has his contract guaranteed through next season, but that does not mean he is set. He won as an assistant with Dallas, but succeeding as the man in charge creates a different perception around the league of a coach’s ability.

The expectations in Toronto are growing. Valanciunas is here, although injured to start his first training camp. Bargnani is healthy. Colangelo brought in Kyle Lowry, a point guard who is spiritually in line with Casey’s defensive focus, to lead the team on the court. It can be argued that Colangelo is building the team around Casey’s preferred style.

“We still want to be a defence-first team,” said Casey, even though most of his changes this year are in the name of improving the 29th-ranked offence. “That’s important. We’ve got to learn how to play at a faster pace without turning it over and making boneheaded plays. That might be our biggest challenge, finding a balance between running, playing fast or making sure we get something good. We’ll need to find that level. Defensively, we’re going to be harping on the same things.”

“All camps are different because everybody has their own coaching style, but coach Casey, defensively him and [Tom Thibodeau] are almost identical when it comes to [their approach],” said guard John Lucas III, comparing his new coach to his last with the Bulls, a former coach of the year. “I really enjoy that because it’s not about our offence — we’ve got to stop play, we’ve got to stop the other team if we want to win.”

If Casey proved anything last year, it is that his defensive tactics are legitimate. With liberal use of zone defence and a more intricate plan with secondary defensive responsibilities, the Raptors went from 30th to 14th in points allowed per possession. The roster, from one year to the next, was virtually the same.

“I have confidence in what I do,” Casey said. “Even when I got fired [I still had confidence.] I saw some things that I did wrong as a head coach, and I’m never one to say it’s not my fault, because ultimately all of the decisions are on me. But I have a lot of confidence in what I do and what I teach on both ends of the floor. Last year reinforced it somewhat.”

Casey might not want to admit it — he might not even feel this way — but last year was the easy part.

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